5 Clever Quickie Games That Let You Fight the Man

The organized creative campaigns known as “game jams” have been happening for 15 years, and by now are so common that dozens seem to be happening on any given day. Earlier this month, though, a new one joined the crowd: Resist Jam was a seven-day event in which developers from around the world created games about oppression, tyranny, and how we fight it. “The global political climate grows increasingly terrifying by the day,” says the jam’s website. “We want to empower people to resist through the power of interactive media.” The event produced over 200 entries, but we’ve picked out five that caught our eye, all of which can be played on just about any computer you’ve got, no gaming experience required. (Cheap netbook? Bring it on!). Given that these were built in under a week, you can expect some bugs here and there—but you can also expect find some fascinating meditations on authoritarianism and its consequences.

The Cat in the Hijab

Take a subway ride as a cat woman wearing a hijab in a meowthropomorphic United States. Feel the weight of harassment, the awkward pressure of not knowing whose eyes are on you or why. This game is a small, focused meditation on managing confrontation and discomfort in the presence of potential discrimination, harassment, and even violence. It’s a little buggy, but doesn’t require any particular skill to play. Download here

Credit: Andrew Wang

Take a subway ride as a cat woman wearing a hijab in a meowthropomorphic United States. Feel the weight of harassment, the awkward pressure of not knowing whose eyes are on you or why. This game is a small, focused meditation on managing confrontation and discomfort in the presence of potential discrimination, harassment, and even violence. It’s a little buggy, but doesn’t require any particular skill to play. Download here

Romantic

An early alpha version of what looks like a much longer project, Romantic is still meaningful enough to land a punch. A short adventure game about a father’s political imprisonment and the effect it has on his child, it’s stark and emotive. As a complete story, it’s clearly lacking resolution, but what’s there is powerful and honest. This is another unzip and play title, though I’d recommend playing it in windowed mode, as I couldn’t figure out how to close it when I was done.

Credit: Anil Demur

An early alpha version of what looks like a much longer project, Romantic is still meaningful enough to land a punch. A short adventure game about a father’s political imprisonment and the effect it has on his child, it’s stark and emotive. As a complete story, it’s clearly lacking resolution, but what’s there is powerful and honest. This is another unzip and play title, though I’d recommend playing it in windowed mode, as I couldn’t figure out how to close it when I was done.

What To Do If You're Stopped By the Police

What to Do If You’re Stopped by the Police is an interactive poetry project—part performance, part text adventure.Words are used to control, detain, even arrest, without justification; this game explores language from the ACLU and the Oxford English Dictionary while helping you learn your own rights in such a situation. This one can be played in your browser, though you’ll want to put on headphones first. Play here

Credit: E. Ung

What to Do If You’re Stopped by the Police is an interactive poetry project—part performance, part text adventure.Words are used to control, detain, even arrest, without justification; this game explores language from the ACLU and the Oxford English Dictionary while helping you learn your own rights in such a situation. This one can be played in your browser, though you’ll want to put on headphones first. Play here

If Not Now, When?

How would you lead a protest movement? How would you manage the demands for supplies, visibility, promotion, security? How do you achieve your ultimate goals—and are you willing to use violence? This simple simulation game asks these questions with grim determination. It’s one of the buggier games on this list, but its commentary is sharp and its intelligence clear. If not us, who? Download here

Credit: Ravynn

How would you lead a protest movement? How would you manage the demands for supplies, visibility, promotion, security? How do you achieve your ultimate goals—and are you willing to use violence? This simple simulation game asks these questions with grim determination. It’s one of the buggier games on this list, but its commentary is sharp and its intelligence clear. If not us, who? Download here

Defy

A simple game of binary choices, Defy is a narrative journey that asks you to consider the tiny choices and substantial risks that resistance brings. How much can you help, and how do you stay safe while also helping the cause? Here, you can try to divine your own limits: what lines you’d draw, and why. This one doesn’t have any sound, so no headphones needed. Download here

Credit: Nedwards

A simple game of binary choices, Defy is a narrative journey that asks you to consider the tiny choices and substantial risks that resistance brings. How much can you help, and how do you stay safe while also helping the cause? Here, you can try to divine your own limits: what lines you’d draw, and why. This one doesn’t have any sound, so no headphones needed. Download here